McCourty adapting to more changes in Patriots' secondary

Cornerback-turned-safety Devin McCourty continues to see moves as the Pats attempt to improve the back end of its defense

Glen Farley The Enterprise @GFarley_ent

FOXBORO – Members of the Patriots secondary aren’t required to walk through a turnstile in order to enter the team’s upgraded weight room at Gillette Stadium.

Maybe they should be.

“Since I’ve been here, we’ve always had guys coming in and guys going,” Devin McCourty said while taking a break from the Patriots’ voluntary offseason conditioning program at the stadium on Thursday, “so (that’s) nothing new.”

McCourty has seen plenty of changes since he entered the NFL out of Rutgers as the Patriots’ first-round pick (27th overall) in the NFL’s 2010 draft.

Heck, as a cornerback-turned-safety, McCourty himself could be presented as Exhibit A.

And so it shall be in 2014, the changes in the Patriots’ secondary continuing with the team’s best cornerback since he was acquired from Tampa Bay in 2012, Aqib Talib (signing with Denver), and McCourty’s partner at the safety position, Steve Gregory (released), leaving, cornerbacks Darrelle Revis (most recently with Tampa Bay) and Brandon Browner (Seattle) coming and safety Patrick Chung returning after a season in Philadelphia.

Once the secondary is settled this year (Browner will begin the season serving a four-game suspension for violating the league’s substance-abuse policy), McCourty will likely be the last man standing, in a sense – the lone returning starter from 2013 at the back end of the Patriots’ defense.

According to McCourty, there is no time like the present to build for the future.

“That starts now so a group of us, we’re always working out together. We’re running together, we’re in the locker room together, so the bonding as a secondary as a unit starts now. The good thing is, everybody is all in and we’re down to have fun and get better together as a unit.”

Certainly, there is room for improvement in a pass defense that ranked 18th in the NFL last year and got picked apart by Peyton Manning to the tune of 32 completions in 43 attempts for 400 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions (for a passer rating of 118.4) in the Pats’ 26-16 AFC Championship game loss in Denver.

Credited with 75 tackles (sixth most on the team) in 2013 based on Patriots coaches’ film review, McCourty says his down time following that season-ending loss was rather brief.

“I don’t sit on the couch eating chips and stuff for too long,” he said. “I get back out there working.”

The Patriots’ front office, meanwhile, has been at work, constructing a secondary that is now a mix of McCourty, the two high-profile free agents, Revis and Browner, Chung the second time around, veteran holdover Kyle Arrington, and younger players like 2013 draft picks Logan Ryan and Duron Harmon, and 2012 draft pickup Alfonzo Dennard, all of whom started at one juncture or another last season.

“We have some good players,” said McCourty. “I think one thing about going into this season, it’ll be competitive. Guys all want to play.

“We have some young guys (and) with Chung coming back, he’s an older veteran guy (who’s been in the system before). So it will be exciting. I think anytime you start a new season the most exciting part of it is the competition. Guys work their tails off all offseason to get better and try to win a job.

“I think once you get going, that’s what’s key about us. We always have a good bond that competition will just bring out the best in all of us, so guys are working hard right now working out and we’ll be ready to go once the competition starts in OTAs (organized team activities).”

Selected by St. Louis in the seventh round of the 2010 draft, the Penn State product spent three seasons with the Rams before being released at the end of training camp in 2013. He signed with Washington as a free agent last Oct. 15.

Hull has appeared in 39 NFL games, starting one, registering 25 tackles in that time.

Glen Farley may be reached at gfarley@enterprisenews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @GFarley_ent.